CASE STUDY: STAYPINEAPPLE UniFi Improves Streaming and Wi-Fi Coverage for Hotel Guests Ubiquiti Networks® UniFi® HD APs provide Wi-Fi coverage ideal for high-density deployment. High-performance UniFi AC Lite, Pro, and HD APs support streaming service for hotel guests. The UniFi Controller helps simplify day-to-day management of the network. Staypineapple is a hospitality company striving to redefine their guests’ expectations of a typical hotel experience. With nine hotels in six major US cities–Boston, Chicago, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle–Staypineapple designed each hotel to be as unique as its host city. These hotels boast amenities such as beach cruisers, European-style bedding, high-speed Wi-Fi, dog-friendly rooms, and the ability to stream your favorite shows or movies (known as streampineapple). In order to provide reliable Wi-Fi and lag-free streaming for their guests, Staypineapple depends on Ubiquiti products to power their high-performance network. UniFi AC Pro AP mounted on a hallway ceiling Lobby area with guest Wi-Fi MEETING THE DEMAND The numerous Staypineapple hotels vary in size; for example, the San Diego location’s Hotel Z is comprised of 96 rooms while the Portland location’s Hotel Rose is comprised of 142 rooms. The bandwidth requirements, however, are fairly demanding at each location to support media streaming by guests who may also have multiple devices that require internet connectivity.
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CASE STUDY: STAYPINEAPPLE
UniFi Improves Streaming and Wi-Fi Coverage for Hotel GuestsUbiquiti Networks® UniFi® HD APs provide Wi-Fi coverage ideal for high-density deployment.
High-performance UniFi AC Lite, Pro, and HD APs support streaming service for hotel guests.
The UniFi Controller helps simplify day-to-day management of the network.
Staypineapple is a hospitality company striving to redefine their guests’ expectations of a typical hotel experience. With nine hotels in six major US cities–Boston, Chicago, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle–Staypineapple designed each hotel to be as unique as its host city. These hotels boast amenities such as beach cruisers, European-style bedding, high-speed Wi-Fi, dog-friendly rooms, and the ability to stream your favorite shows or movies (known as streampineapple). In order to provide reliable Wi-Fi and lag-free streaming for their guests, Staypineapple depends on Ubiquiti products to power their high-performance network.
UniFi AC Pro AP mounted on a hallway ceiling
Lobby area with guest Wi-Fi
MEETING THE DEMANDThe numerous Staypineapple hotels vary in size; for example, the San Diego location’s Hotel Z is comprised of 96 rooms while the Portland location’s Hotel Rose is comprised of 142 rooms. The bandwidth requirements, however, are fairly demanding at each location to support media streaming by guests who may also have multiple devices that require internet connectivity.
UniFi AC Pro AP provides Wi-Fi to guest rooms
All locations required dual-band Wi-Fi with 100 Mbps of peak bandwidth. To meet the high bandwidth demands of their guests, Staypineapple installed UniFi PoE switches and deployed UniFi APs for wireless coverage throughout the hotels’ guest rooms and hallways. They also utilized products in their public spaces, creating reliable connectivity for their guest lobbies, in-hotel restaurants, and meeting rooms.
Staypineapple selected a combination of the following UniFi AP and switch models:
UniFi Product Number Purpose
UAP-AC-LITE 359802.11ac wireless coverage in a reduced footprint
UAP-AC-PRO 122 802.11ac wireless coverage
UAP-AC-HD 6802.11ac Wave 2 wireless coverage for high-density environments
UniFi PoE Switches 32 Gigabit switching with PoE support
WIRED DEPLOYMENTThe backbone of each hotel is fiber, which feeds into a server room. A combination of UniFi PoE switches then supply power and data to the UniFi AC Lite, Pro, and HD APs. Ubiquiti offers a variety of PoE switches to fit every application need. The UniFi PoE switch models are available with 8, 16, 24, or 48 PoE Gigabit Ethernet ports delivering 802.3at/af PoE.
“When trying to get 5 GHz coverage into hotel rooms, we had to double our AP density; Ubiquiti products allowed us to get there with a very small footprint and not a huge investment.” David Thomson, CIO, Staypineapple
Devices screen of the UniFi Controller
WIRELESS UPGRADEEach of the nine Staypineapple hotels originally deployed the first generation of UniFi Access Points to provide their wireless coverage. They have since upgraded and standardized with the UniFi AC Lite, Pro, and HD AP product lines. The upgrade is quick and simple due to the intuitive mounting system of the APs. The UAP-AC-PRO and UAP-AC-LITE models are deployed in guest rooms and hallways for maximum performance. To further optimize wireless performance, they relied on a higher number of APs, resulting in fewer devices per AP and therefore a more positive user experience for guests.
In order to handle the high-density spaces such as guest lobbies, hotel restaurants, and various meeting rooms, Staypineapple integrated UniFi HD APs into their network as well. The UniFi HD AP is an 802.11ac Wave 2 Access Point using 4x4 MU-MIMO technology. These features allow the UniFi HD AP to support more users than earlier generation APs, making it ideal for deployments where there are numerous clients in a relatively small space.
Map screen depicting the locations of UniFi APs
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HIGH-BANDWIDTH STREAMINGOne of the main amenities offered to Staypineapple guests is streaming. Each hotel provides access to streaming media devices through a hidden SSID. Guests are allowed access to this network through room number and name, confirmed by the hotel management system, which interfaces with the UniFi Controller software. This provides guests with the high throughput needed–30/30 Mbps minimum–for uninterrupted streaming.
NETWORK MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT Designed for simplified management, the UniFi Controller allows admins to configure and monitor UniFi devices using a graphical user interface. Staypineapple utilizes the UniFi Controller for network monitoring and device configuration, including VLANS on the switches. The UniFi Controller offers additional features such as AP provisioning, network mapping, and multi-site management.
Staypineapple uses a standard install for their hotels. The admins access the UniFi APs via SSH and run a set-inform URL command. This tells the UniFi APs where to look for the UniFi Controller.
“[Ubiquiti products] have great manageability at a good price point. The throughput is great for our 1 AP per every 2.5 guest rooms.” David Thomson, CIO, Staypineapple
LOOKING TO THE FUTUREStaypineapple currently has plans to acquire additional hotels over the next couple of years. They plan to continue using UniFi products to best support their wireless needs.
Visit Staypineapple at www.staypineapple.com
For more deployment case studies, visit: www.ubnt.com/customers
